Monthly Archives: February 2005

Although he may be less inclined than before to scream about it, newly installed DNC Chairman Howard Dean is still a traveling man. Democratic officials in red states may be inclined to scream about Dean’s visits, but not enthusiastically. CNN reports that the Democratic governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sibelius, will not appear with Dean during his two day visit to that state. And CNN expects that Dean will receive a »

As a distant lover of Israel, I have been genuinely puzzled by its failure to produce a statesman equal to the challenges faced by the country over the past 20 years. In every area of modern life the country boasts a genius that on a per capita basis must be unrivaled. Yet on the world stage its politicians seem almost retarded. The country has never had a public accounting for »

I’m scheduled to appear on CNBC’s Kudlow & Company tomorrow (Friday) at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) together with our friend Hugh Hewitt. Our segment is to be devoted to the subject of shield laws in the context of the litigation related to Plamegate. I think my contribution may be limited to explaining the law that governs the project: the law of unintended consequences. The guest list posted for tomorrow’s show includes »

If you are a recent college graduate or current upper classman interested in a career in politics or opinion journalism, the Publius Fellowship Program of the Claremont Institute may provide you an incomparable two-week course in politics and writing. The program consists of seminars on political thought for rising conservative stars, both future scholars and would-be journalists and politicos, and includes room, board and a stipend. The institute is now »

Stephen Sondheim made his brilliant Broadway debut as the lyricist for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story score in 1957. Since then he has fulfilled his promise as a Broadway composer many times over, but he has also developed a cult following around his numerous failures and eccentricities. How can someone so good also be so bad? In the fall 2004 City Journal, Stefan Kanfer meditated knowledgeably and at length on »

by Dartmouth student Joe Malchow of Joe’s Dartblog on the visit to Dartmouth of the French consul to New England. The Frenchman seems quite impressed with how much “soft power” the EU (and, by extension, France) has compared to the U.S. Joe asked just the right questions, to the dismay of the head of the French department, the legendary John Rassias. If you read the whole thing, you’ll see that »

The AP caption reads: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news – web sites) is applauded as she arrives to introduce U.S. President George W. Bush (news – web sites) and first lady Laura Bush to American troops based in Germany at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005. Bush met earlier with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to work out post-Iraq (news – web sites) differences, including disputes over NATO »

Last week, I reported briefly on a reception for author Bat Ye’or hosted by columnist Diana West in honor of the publication of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. In this work, Ye’or argues that Europe is transforming itself, through its foreign, economic, cultural and immigration policies, into a new Islamicized geo-political entity. Here is Diana’s column that appeared the following day in the Washington Times. Diana contrasts the clear-eyed, well-researched analysis »

The Weekly Standard has published the response of Michael (no longer “Anonymous”) Scheuer to the criticism leveled by Thomas Joscelyn against his view that Israel controls American foreign policy. I posted Joscelyn’s piece here. The Standard also includes Joscelyn’s reply to Scheuer’s letter. The exchange confirms that Scheuer is in over his head, as he was (or at least should have been) at the CIA. Joscelyn makes all of the »

Hugh Hewitt directs our attention to this post by Carol Platt Liebau regarding potential Supreme Court nominee Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig’s father was murdered, and liberals may be poised to argue that this fact would render him impermissibly biased in death penalty cases (but doesn’t he hear such cases now as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge?) Liebau notes that, “under this reasoning, every potential female justice should be asked »

Judd Magilnick reviews London’s new Churchill Museum for the Spectator Online: “Deconstructing Winston.” It appears that those of us who want to learn about Churchill as well as from Churchill will have to stick with the books by his best biographers, Martin Gilbert and William Manchester, and those by Churchill himself. After making his own critical contribution to the survival of Western civilization, Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for »

I’m pretty sure that Lawrence Summers won’t be drawing the same conclusions as Debra Saunders, or following the sage advice that she has to offer, but I think she nails it in her San Francisco Chronicle column: “Mob rule in academia.” Let’s pick up with point four and stick with it to her conclusion: Summers’ fourth mistake was that he was reasonable. Before his remarks on women in science, Summers »

USA Today runs the excellent AP story on the renaming of the site of the Miracle on Ice in honor of St. Paul’s Herb Brooks yesterday: “1980 hockey rink named in honor of Herb Brooks.” The AP caption reads: “Kelly Paradise, center, daughter of hockey coach Herb Brooks, and Herb Brooks’ son Dan Brooks, right, listen as New York Gov. George Pataki, left, announces at the end of the 25th »

Our friend Austin Bay disagrees with Mark Steyn’s take on President Bush’s European charm offensive and, to some extent with my take, as well. Bay believes that the Iraqi elections signal the defeat of Chirac and Schroeder, and the end of their »

The Philadelphia Daily News has an unusually candid article on the recently arrested defendant charged with plotting to assassinate President Bush: “Ex-valedictorian at ‘Terror High’ named in plot to kill Bush.” The article describes him as a graduate of Alexandria’s Saudi-funded “Terror High.” The article also quotes Daniel Pipes: Daniel Pipes, director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum and a well-known advocate of aggressive anti-terror policies, said the school is »